Zelenskyy: Russia could attack Poland to prevent Ukraine from receiving air defense before winter

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that Russia could have launched a drone attack on Poland to prevent Ukraine from receiving air defense equipment from its partners before winter. The President said this during a press conference with his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb in Kyiv.

"First of all, Russia wanted an answer: what will happen, what are the partners ready for, what is NATO ready for politically, what are the partners ready for. Then they looked at what they were prepared for physically, whether their partners were ready for such an attack. Thirdly, if I may say so, in my opinion, they could also do this to prevent partners from transferring air defense systems to Ukraine before winter," Zelenskyy said.

According to Zelenskyy, with this attack, Russia could demonstrate to its partners that it can attack them and that they also need air defense: "It looks like [Russian dictator] Putin, very much. It's just that in my opinion, I'm not sure that it is, I'm just sharing."

• German chancellor Merz says Russian drones' flight to Poland shows that NATO's air defense system in Europe requires significant improvement.
• The Polish defense minister said that in response to the incident, Sweden decided to urgently send military aid to its NATO ally, including air defense systems and aircraft.